Strictly Ballroom

Scott Hastings has competed in ballroom dance for years, and when he starts using steps the federation does not approve his partner leaves him. Nobody replaces her; the only person available is Fran, a beginner who looks hopeless. The two start working against every rule the federation has. Baz Luhrmann directed his first film. The story began in 1984 as a play he staged with fellow students while at the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney. It won best director and best production at the Czechoslovak Youth Drama Festival in Bratislava in 1986. Luhrmann later brought in his school friend Craig Pearce to expand the text with him. The budget shaped the film. The first figure was over five million Australian dollars, and the government funding bodies were reluctant to back a project this odd with no known names. The Film Finance Corporation said it would not give that money to a first-time director. A subplot was cut, the budget came down to 3.3 million and the body then covered about 65 percent of it. The first screening at Cannes was at midnight in Un Certain Regard. The cast and crew got a fifteen-minute standing ovation, repeated the following night; it became one of the most talked-about films of the festival, won the Youth Award and set off a bidding war among international distributors. In Australia it took 21.76 million dollars, at the time the third-highest figure for an Australian film, behind only the first two Crocodile Dundee pictures. Who it is for: viewers who like dance films and are curious where Luhrmann's excessive visual language started. Who it is not for: anyone wanting subtlety. The characters are drawn as caricatures and every emotional turn is taken loudly.